Stuck Oktoberfest marzen fermenation at 1.038 please help

[Rugger1978]

I made my first all-grain batch of beer and I choose oktoberfest marzen with Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager yeast. I have and an OG of 1.057 and it's been stuck at 1.038 for a week now with a total of 3 weeks fermenting.

My story goes I think I might of pitched it to warm and then for some reason I thought I needed to keep it at room temp for a while before taking it to lagering temp. I reread the recipe a couple days later and realized that wasn't the truth so I immediately stuck it in my lagering fridge and brought it down to 50 degrees. So the beer did sit at room temp for a couple days. Obviously the yeast did some work but didn't complete the job (probably because I killed it?). I have tasted it and even though it's sweet, there doesn't seem to be any off flavors.

My idea is to rack the beer to secondary, purchase new Wyeast Munich Lager yeast, create a starter, and pitch at 48 degrees and will it ferment the rest? If not what do I need to do to salvage this 10 gallon batch? Or could I just throw in a packet or rehydrated saflager, give it a couple more weeks, then transfer to secondary and lager?



Thanks in advance.

[Joe Yoder]

I am not real experienced with Lagers, but I don't see anything wrong with your plan.
Joe

[Rob Martin]

My experiences with stuck fermentation with lagers is that it is difficult to get them going again. The easily fermentable sugars seem to go quick, the remaining sugars are harder to attack.

There could have been a couple of things. Did you do a iodine test during the mash to make sure you got good conversion? I always take a small sample of the liquid, and do not sparge until the iodine does not turn black. Some malts and/or temps can take awhile.

Assuming you got good conversion, how I ferment my lagers is I pitch the yeast around 65, and slowly let it come down to 45-55 (depending on where I am fermenting it, cold closet at 55 or 45 deg fridge). I pitch a TON of yeast for 10 gallons. My yeast goes from 850 mL, to 2 L, to 5 L, to 10-15 L (total). Doing big pitches has allowed me to get really active fermentation, even down at 48 degs.

Back to the problem...I have not had good luck with dry lager yeast. If you have it around, you could definitely try it. Meanwhile, you may want to consider getting some liquid yeast going to pitch even more.

[cyburai]

Keep the existing brew cold. I dropped a big pitch of lager yeast just before going into the fermenter. It took me a week to find another source of yeast to pitch. The beer turned out fine.

[Rugger1978]

Okay good to know. The iodine test I should use on all my all-grain batches (ales and lagers)?

For this current problem, my plan is to create two 1/2 gallon starters and let them ferment at 68-72 degrees for a few days, then put them in fridge at 38 to cold crash for a day or so, drain the top and pitch only the yeast cake. The reason I was planning on doing two is because I have the 10 gallon batch broken into two 5 gallon carboys (well that's what I'm transfering it into to get it off the old dead yeast). From what I've read, it's okay to cold crash as it puts the new healthy yeast cells into hybernation and they will wake up when the right conditions are met, aka pouring them into 50 degree wort. Is this correct?


Thanks for all the help so far.